Hoop-machine.



Patented Aug. 29, I899. J. FDWLEY.

HOOP MACHINE. (Applicatiun filed Nov. 7, 1898.) LNo Model.)

5 Sheets-Sheet l,

A TTOH/VEYS.

Patented Aug. 29, I899. J. FOWLEY.

No. s32,|07.

HOOP MACHINE. I

(Application filed Nov. 7, 1898.]

5 Sheets-Sheet 2 (No Model.)

IN VENTOH 0 z'owze y.

A TTOHNE rs.

W/TNE Patented Aug. 29, I899. v J. FOWLEY.

HOOP MACHINE.

(Application filed Nov. 7, 189B.\

5 Sheets-Sheet 4,

(No Model.)

J I z w vs/vroe 7ezIIzeJ 1 040765.

W/T/VESSES BY A TTOHNE Y8 N0. 632,!07. Patented Aug. 29, I899.

J. FDWLEY.

HOOP MACHINE.

(Application filed Nov. 7, 1898.)

5 Sheets-Sheet 5,

(No Model.)

//v VENTOI? 701rzea I'owley.

WITNESSES YUEY'QBRAEPEYERS co womuwa. WASHVNG tical cutter-shafts infront of the main saw UNITED STATES JAMES FOWLEY, OF

PATENT OFFICE.

COBDEN, ILLINOIS.

HOOP-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 632,107, dated Augustv29, 1899.

Application filed November '7, 1898.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, JAMES FOWLEY, of Cobden, in the county of Union andState of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement inHoop-Machines, of which the following is a specification.

Myinvention is in the nature of a machine for making barrel-hoopsdirectly from the log, with one end tapered to a thin edge to form thelap and the other end pointed to form the outer wrap. It is animprovement upon the machine for which Letters Patent No. 568,671 weregranted me September 29, 1896; and it consists in the peculiarconstruction and arrangement of parts, which I will now proceed todescribe with reference to the drawings, in which- I Figure 1 is aperspective view of the entire machine, taken from the log side. Fig. 2is a plan View with the driving-belts omitted. Fig. 3 is an underneathor inverted plan view. Fig. 4 is a vertical transverse section on line 44: of Fig. 2. Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the inner side of thelog-carriage broken in the middle and with the two ends brought togetherto shorten the view. Fig. 5 is a sectional View on line 5 5 of Fig. 5.Fig. 5 are detached Views of the parts shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 6 is a rearview of the bases of the slidingframes that carry the cutter-heads. Fig.7 is a rear View, partly broken away, of the hoop-guides anddrawing-rolls that take the severed hoops from the saw. Fig. 8 is a rearview of the hoop-guide alone. Fig. 9 is a perspective view of one of theadvancing-cams for two of the cutterheads. Fig. 10 is a perspective viewof the separatedbearings of the cutter-heads, and Fig. 11 shows in sideand edge views the two ends of a completed hoop as made by my machine.

I will first describe the several operations of forming hoops from thelog and afterwarddescribe these operations in detail.

The general method of making a series of hoops at one operation from alog is the same as that shown in my previous patent. In my presentmachine there are five or more verinstead of three, as in my saidpatent, and they have a different order of action. Re-

ferring to Fig. 1, the first shaft A is armed Serial No. 695,730. (Nomodel.)

with a series of horizontal saws a, which cut a series of parallelhorizontal kerfs into the log, the saws being separated a distance equalto the width the hoops are to be. The second vertical shaft E is armedwith straight cutter-blades e and is a lap-planer. Although second inposition, it is not second in order of action, as will be explainedhereinafter. The third shaft B is armed with molding-cutters 1), whosefunction is to round the edge of the hoops and form the hoops on thelog. The fourth vertical shaft C has smoothing cutterblades 0, with aseries of scalloped or semielliptical edges that bevel and smooth thehoops on the log and follow behind the moldin g-cutter b, and the fifthvertical shaft D has blades 01 with V-shaped notches,that point the endsof the hoops. All these cutters are arranged in front of the mainvertical saw S which is of the circular type and is formed in sectionsof four or more plates. The order of action of these several devices isas follows: Cutter-shafts E and D and their blades 6 and (1, whoseframes have a backand-forth movement, are back and out of range ofengagement with the log when it starts forward. As the log, which has afiat side, approaches the saw S said log is first acted upon by the gangof saws a and has a series of horizontal saw kerfs cut into it. Planer ebeing back or out of range of contact with the log does not yet act.After the saws to act the molding-cutters b form the hoops on the log,and then the smoothing-cutters c bevel and smooth the surface. Then justbefore the front or left-hand end of the log reaches the saw thepointing-cutters (1 come forward and point the hoop-sections on thefront end of the log. The log then,with its connected hoop-strips fastto it, passes to the saw S, which severs all the hoop-strips intoindividual or detached hoops with pointed ends, as seen on the left ofFig. 11, which then pass into the individual grooves of the hoop-guideplate T (see Figs. 8 and 7) and are received between the verticaldrawingrolls U U, Fig. 1, which draw them through. As the rear end ofthe log approaches the saw S the Vertical shaft E, with its straightlapcutters, advances to the log and for a short distance at the rear orright-hand end of the log cuts the butt-end of the log to a bevel toform the lap of the hoop like those shown on the right of Fig. 11. Theflat tapered end of these hoops (shown on the right of Fig. 11) formsthe lap to accommodate the double thickness of the lapped ends whenplaced about a barrel and the pointed end forms the outside wrap.

The order ofaction of the cutteris indicated by the sequence of theletters A B O D E, Fig. 1. The cutter-shafts all have band-pulleys ontheir upper ends connected by belts to corresponding driving-pulleys A BC D E on a main horizontal drive-shaft F, supported in bearings instandards F and driven through a belt connecting with pulley F from anysuitable source of power. The advance movement of the shafts D and E isvery slight, and the slack of their belts is sufficient to accommodatesaid movement without special adjustment, and for this purpose theirbelts may be arranged to run a little more loosely than the others and,if desired, be provided with weighted tension-rollers running on top ofthe same in the usual way, as indicated in dotted lines at w and G isthe log-carriage, one side of which has (see Fig. 1) a slide-block g,that rides back and forth upon a V-shaped rail g, that is kept welllubricated, while the other side of the carriage has rollers 9 that rideupon a rail 9 From the bottom of the carriage there projectshorizontally between the tracks g g a long rack-bar G, having teeth onits lower side that are engaged by a pinion H on a shaft H for runningthe carriage back and forth. This shaft H (see Fig. 2) is driven byconepulleys H by a belt (shown in dotted lines) from other cone-pulleysI on a shaft I, which latter also carries the circular saw S and adrive-pulley 1 connected by a belt with the driving power. On the shaftI there is also another pulley l connecting bya belt (shown in dottedlines) with another pulley J on a shaft J, which latter has a worm Jengaging (see Fig. 7) with a bevel worm-wheel n on the drawing-roll U,which drawing-roll U is connected to the other one, U, by gears it u, asshown in Figs. 1 and 2. This supplies the power for pulling the severedhoops from the saw through the guides in the plate T. These drawingrolls are journaled in a movable frame K, Fig. 1, which is pivoted abouta bolt k to the base-frame and has its upper end stayed by a brace K andits lower end tightened and secured by a set-screw 7c, passing through aslot in the base of frame K. By removing the brace K and loosening thescrew the frame K, with the drawing-rolls, may be thrown back and out ofthe way about the pivot-bolt 70 as a center.

I will now describe the means by which the five cutter-shafts in frontof the main saw are adjusted to and from the log.

L, Figs. 3 and 4., is a base bearing the frames A B C D E of all five ofthe vertical cuttershafts. This base has a depending lug Z,

through which is tapped a screw-shaftL, havin g outside the main frame acrank-wheel L by turning which the base L, with the five cutter-shafts,may be adjusted bodily to or from the log. The cutter-shafts A, B, and Chave an independent adjustment on the base L, and for this purpose theirframes A B C (see Fig. 2) slide in guides h 7b on said base and areoperated by set-screws m m, tapped through a stationary flange M on saidbase L and bearing against the frames A B 0 carrying said shafts. Theframes 13 C move with the top plate N; but the frame A hasa pin a at itsupper end, that moves in a slot at of plate N, soas to be independentlyadjusted.

The two automatically-adjustable cuttershafts D and E have specialoperating mechanism controlled by the movements of the log-carriage asfollows: The two frames E D (see Fig. 2,) which carry these shafts,slide between the guides h h below and at the top have pins 6 d thatslide in slots at n in the top plate N. From the bottom of the frame Ebearing the planer 6, (see Figs. 3 and 4,) there projects a lug e towhich is rigidly attached a horizontal slide-bar O, passing freelythrough a guide 0 in the base-frame. This rod bears on its outer end twocams 0 and 0, Figs. 2 and 9. A similar connection is made for the otherframe D carrying the pointcutter shaft D, and its slide-rod has on itsprojecting end two cams r '1'. (See Fig. 2.) These two pairs of cams areacted upon by the log-carriage in its back-and-forth movement toautomatically adjust these two outter-heads in accordance with thepreviouslydescribed order of operation, as follows:

The carriage G, Fig. 5, has at one end a bent arm 8, projectingdownwardly and bearing on its horizontal end a standing stud s, which(see Fig. 2) is designed to act upon the cams r r and slide thecutter-shaft D in and out. At the other end of the carriage (see Fig. 5)there is a longitudinaliscrew-shaft T, with hand-wheel T, whichscrew-shaft passes through a block carrying an angular plate 25 andadjusts it longitudinally between guides. This plate has on its lowerside, pivoted to a bolt t, a shoe t, with a slot at t moving over pin ion plate 7: to limit its oscillation. 'This shoe t is designed to passbetween the cams o 0 and operate the lap-planer e, as seenin Fig. at. Toavoid interference between stud s and shoe i and insure their properindividual action on their respective cams r 'r and 0 0, the stud s andcams 'r r are in a lower plane than the shoe i and cams 0 0.

The action of the carriage upon the cams r r and 0 o is as follows,reference being had to Fig. 2: When the log-carriage is moving to theleft and approaching the saw S and the front edge of the log nears thepointingcutter shaft D, the stud s strikes first the cam r and pulls thecutter-shaft out, as shown by the dotted arrow, and the pointing-cutterhead advances to the log and cuts deep V- shaped grooves in the log,which after the saw takes off its slice forms the pointed ends of thehoop. Immediately after the advance of the pointer-shaft D the stud sstrikes the cam r and forces back the cutter-shaft D, so that it nolonger acts on the log. It will be seen that when pin .9 strikes therounded end of cam r it instantly pulls out the cutterhead its fulldistance and immediately allows it to drop back gradually. This isnecessary in pointing the hoops to enable the pointingcutters to enterthe extreme forward end of the log their full depth at once and thengradually withdraw from the log to make the tapering point. Thelap-planer does not act until the rear (right-hand) end of the log comesopposite the planer. When the carriage G is moving to the left in Fig. 2and the right-hand end of the carriage and log nears the cams 0 and 0,the shoe i first strikes cam 0 and pulls the planer-shaft E forward tomake the bevel cut on the end of the log for the lap and on the returnmovement pressing against cam 0 forces it back out of the way again.This forward movement of the lap-planer is very gradual, because theplaner starts to cut into the log between its ends or in advance of itsrear end and starts in with a feather-edge cut and cuts gradually andcontinually deeper on the forward movement until the rear end of the logis reached. By means of screw-shaft T the shoe 25 may be adjustedlongitudinally to the carriage to suit the varying length of logs.

With this construction of machine it will also be seen that there are anumber of vertical and rapidly-running cutter-head shafts, and as theyhave cutter edges that must register nicely one with the other it isimportant that their cutters do not get out of horizontal alinementt'.e., that one shall not move up or down in relation to the other, as isliable to occur from unequal wear at the box. To prevent this, I makeall the bearings of the vertical shafts as in Fig. 10, in which all theshafts have rigid collars 1; formed on them and all the boxes havemultiple grooved boxes t" corresponding to and receiving said collars.This by giving a multiplicity of bearings to resist verticallongitudinal movement of the shaft holds the latter against verticallooseness and also forms a hearing which better retains thelubricating-oil.

In illustrating my invention I have not shown any particular means forreversing the feed of the carriage for running it back and forth. Forthis purpose I employ the usual friction-disk feed interposed in thetrain of driving mechanism for the carriage and which, being old andWell-known, requires no illustration. For the same reason I have omittedthe log feeding mechanism on the carriage for adjusting the log sidewiseto a new out after each slice of hoops is taken off.

'I do not confine my invention to the making of hoops, as some of itsfeatures are applicable to making various articles of a similar shapedirect from the log.

I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A hoop-machine having a log-carriage, a vertical slicing-saw, and infront of ita series of vertical cutter-heads, two of said cutterheadsbeing made laterally adjustable one of them having V-shaped cuttingedges to point the hoops and the other having a straightedge cutter tolap-plane the other ends on the log before being sliced off by the saw,substantially as described.

2. In ahoop-machine, the combination with the vertical or slicing saw;of a series of five vertical cutter-heads arranged in front of the saw,one set A B 0 having relatively stationary bearings and provided withhorizontal saws and molding-cutter blades to form the hoops on the log,and the other set D and E having respectively blades with V-shapedcutting edges and plain blades, and means for giving them an automaticmotion to and from the log to form pointed ends and bevelfaces on theopposite ends of the log substantially as and for the purpose described.

3. In a hoop-machine, the combination with the vertical or slicing saw;of a series of vertical cutter-heads arranged in front of the saw, oneset having relatively stationary bearings and provided with horizontalsaws and molding-cutter blades to form the hoops on the log, acutter-head with straight-edge cutter arranged in movable bearings, acutterhead with V-shaped hoop-pointing cutting edges also arranged inmovable bearings, means for advancing them, and a log-carriage havingdevices at one end to operate upon one of these cutter-heads to pointthe hoops, and means at the other end to operate upon the othercutter-head to lap-plane the ends substantially as and for the purposedescribed.

4. In a hoop-machine the combination with a vertical or slicing saw; ofa series of vertical cutter-heads arranged in front of the slicing-saw,the first having a series of horizontal saws and being relativelystationary, the second being a straight-edge lap-planer and beingautomatically adjustable in and out, the third and fourth havingmolding-cutters and relatively stationary, and the fifth having V-shapedpointing cutting edges and adjustable in and out, a series of pulleys onthe tops of said shafts, a horizontal driveshaft with correspondingpulleys and belts connecting them to the cutter-head pulleys, and alog-carriage with means for automatically adjusting the lap-planer andpointing cutter-head substantially as shown and described.

5. In a hoop-machine, the combination of a vertical slicing-saw, aseries of vertical cutter-heads, arranged in front thereof, two of thembeing automatically adjustable and provided respectively with a straightcutting edge, and V-shaped cutting edges, sliding frames carrying thesame, horizontal slide- Having thus described my invention, what rodsattached to the lower part of said frames and carrying at their outerend double cams 0 0', and p 1) respectively, and a log-carriage havingone bearing fitting between the cams 0 0 and operating one slide-rod,and another bearing at its other end fitting between the other camsppand operating the other sliderod, said bearings being at opposite endsof the carriage and in different planes substantially as and for thepurpose described. I

6. In a hoop-machine, the combination with the slicing-saw S; of thehoop-guide plate T,

the drawing-rolls U U geared together as described and the frame Kcarrying the drawing-rolls pivoted at the back end and provided with astay-brace K and a bindingscrew 70 substantially as and for the purposedescribed.

JAMES FOWLEY, Vitnesses:

W. J. FERRILL, B. F. GUER.

